Illusion of the Sea
by year of the snake
Summary: In a way she was just an illusion. Not quite human, but definately not a demon. Sea maid, sea maid, your home is calling you.


Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. Hehehe!

By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.

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**Illusion of the Sea**

Inuyasha had come home from his visit to the sea shore with Kikyo with a strangely beautiful woman. She had a somewhat salty human smell. Her hair was as dark and watery looking as the sea at night. She served both Inuyasha and his bride faithfully. Though she rarely spoke.

I, Inu no Taisho, was surprised that such a servant had been found at the sea, but not for long. Once I had watched her stare at the distant sea for two hours from a high turret window. That was when all the pieces clicked for me. Watching the poor girl I couldn't determine whether I was proud or upset. The girl was such an uncommon gift in these parts. Once I had heard, when I had visited the continent as a child, of such people as this servant is. The man had laughed at the original teller for even believing in the normal creature let alone one that turns into a human.

To ease my curiosity I had asked Inuyasha, "What is the girl's name?"

Said girl turned towards us. Inuyasha looked perplexed for a moment then with a laugh he answered, "Kagome, for she is a caged bird!"

Kikyo laughed at what she thought was their private joke. The girl, now dubbed Kagome, turned back to her work without attracting attention.

My mind was made up though, I was disappointed in my youngest son.

So I sent my son on a dangerous mission. Inuyasha was proud I, his father, thought so highly of him and Kikyo went with him. They left the girl with orders, keep their wing of the palace clean and ready for their return.

Kagome nodded and bowed humbly to the couple. I almost expected a splash when her hair pooled on the hard packed path because of the depth of her bow. When I turned away the girl followed suit. Serenely the girl walked behind me back up the path to the palace.

We split ways when the hallway to Inuyasha's wing appeared. I listened to her walk just as serenely down the hall that led to the stairway and up that flight of stairs. I heard the exact moment her composure broke and she ran to whatever room she had decided to start with. I listened while loud bangs and swishes of thrown fabric sounded from Inuyasha's bedchamber. An unexpectedly loud crash followed by a swallowed yip had me dashing into the room after her.

The little woman was sitting beside a overturned ornate cabinet. She was clutching a bleeding arm to her chest. I approached the creature on the floor. She stared at me warily. I asked to see her arm when I was crouched at her side. She rested it in my outstretched hand.

I brought the arm up to my face. I was about to lick the wound to heal it when I looked into her face and thought better of it. Her face dared me to lick her blood up. "Ah... So you have protections against my kind do you?"

Kagome just blinked.

Instead I ripped a strip from the sleeve of my inner kimono which I wrapped around the bleeding wound. I then helped her rise. Looking around the disaster of a room I decided to ask, "What were you doing little servant?"

Looking as caught as she did when I arrived she explained in broken Japanese, "Search I for... kimono of washing." She tugged at her own kimono as she said so.

It was then I realized that while she seemed to understand all that was said to her she could barely speak any Japanese. So that was the true reason she never spoke to anyone. "You mean you search for clothes that need washing."

"Hai." she answered and bowed humbly.

"Behind a cabinet?"

Her head snapped up and a scared look filled her face. "I is cabinet fall trip!" She didn't lie very well.

"You don't lie very well girl. Even a human would know you are lying."

"No! I is truth!" she insisted.

"No. You are lying. I happen to understand why you are. I wont punish you. Try not to break anything or hurt yourself... again, during your search." I walked away while she bowed with the first smile I had seen on her face ever.

At the doorway I stopped and looked back at the still bowing girl. "What is your name child?"

Raising to her full height she directed sea bright eyes at me. "Maya."

"I see. Are you merely an illusion then?"

She smiled again. "Ever everything I is is illusion."

I just nod at the strange girl. Walking down the hall I silently wish her luck in her search.

Unfortunately when two days later I came to inform her that Inuyasha had sent word of his coming return she hadn't found what she hunted. I cannot phantom how this small one did it but she got all the rooms in order and was waiting for her master when he arrived half a day later. She bowed to him like it was natural for her to do so, and to his wife as an extension of him. Something close to a happily content mask curled on her face as she did so.

They had returned with a hat with a veil made of red beads for her to wear.

111

I could think of no way to get them out of the palace for the next two weeks. Then my elder son came for a visit. Inuyasha, Kikyo and I went out to meet him on the road. They brought Kagome with us. The girl quietly did all the work of the camp without complaint. She trudged after us all, trying bravely to keep up.

Sesshoumaru's aura scared a small group of Wolf Demons into our path. Kikyo convinced Inuyasha not to attack them so they could test out their new toy's powers. They sent Kagome to the front of the group. The leader of the pack straightened in confusion. I have to admit I would wonder why an enemy would send a human woman to fight me also.

When she had positioned herself before us she pushed the hat with a red bead veil off her head. It clattered to the ground behind her. As I was behind her I couldn't see what she did to begin her spell but from the position of her head I would say she looked each one in the eyes. Then with slow flowy moves she reached up and withdrew the polished chopsticks that kept her hair in it's messy bun. She just let them drop behind her. They clinked when they met in her hat.

Each one was staring her right in the face, so I have no idea why she did the movements she did. She brought her hands back down and flicked them out at her hips. Once her hands were out she started turning slowly. Her turning picked up speed when her hands flicked again at her chest. Faster when they flung outwards at her head and finally she went the fastest she could turn when at the highest she could reach they snapped away from each other. As she turned her eyes left bright glowing blue trails in my vision.

Following the pattern they had followed up backwards, her hands flickered down. Her turning slowed with every jerk outward. Finally she stopped facing the wolf demons before us. She began swaying unsteadily on her feet. As one all three rushed forward. The leader arrived first steadying her against him.

Inuyasha growled lowly, too low for Kikyo to hear but Kagome's ear ticked. Kikyo laughed.

To stop a brewing fight I unsealed my aura. The wolves tried to take her with them but she cried, "Iie!" Then in her broken Japanese she continued, "Be must I here staying!" That combined with a look I could not see she sent the wolves running off without her.

We stopped nearby for the evening because Inuyasha insisted that she get rid of the smell of 'mangy wolf'. The wolves were hanging around the edges of my senses. So I sat, with my back turned, near the stream in which she obediently bathed.

As she scrubbed I asked, "Is Inuyasha under the spell?"

"Spell?" she questioned. It took her a moment to realize of what I spoke. "Yes, of spell before Inuyasha saw. Keeps wife close, get spell strong no."

"Why do you do this spell?"

She paused her movements. "Protect."

"What?"

"I."

I thought of something else. "Do you have a family back home?"

"Yes. Missing I them is."

"Children?" I clarified, wanting to be sure.

"Sibling?" she questioned back.

"No, your own."

"Iie. Have mate I no."

"I see." I was relieved that at least she didn't have children waiting for her at home.

"What would licking your blood have done?"

I was surprised to find her kneeling beside me in a black outfit I had never seen the like of before. It shined as wetly as her hair and eyes. The same grin from when I had almost licked her blood before was on her face, daring me to try it and see what happens.

"You are not going to tell." I stated.

Kagome just stood and yanked her kimono over her outfit. Once her obi was tied, in a knot, she pulled her dripping hair into a bun. Hair done she reattached her hat to her head. It chingled. I could sense an amused smile on her face when she turned back to me. "I lord." She bowed teasingly.

That night while the humans were sleeping Sesshoumaru strode into camp. Sesshoumaru looked over our companions and showed no surprise over the one with a beaded hat over her face. That is until her shoe slammed into a tree, flying just inches from his nose. Only then did a few beads clink a melody as she peeked out from under her hat. Dark blues shining a dangerous light in the fire.

"It's safe Kagome." I tell her.

She nods and sits up. Letting her veiled hat rest on her lap she curiously watches us.

After a few minutes Inuyasha jumps down and tells her, "Go back to sleep Kagome."

Again she simply nods. Laying back down she covers her face once more with her hat. Inuyasha then jumps back into his tree and broods.

When Inuyasha drifts off too Sesshoumaru finally speaks. "Who is she?"

"A servant Inuyasha brought home from the sea..." I paused hoping he will ask why. As always he never does, so I continued anyway, "About a month ago." That catches Sesshoumaru's interest.

"She still smells of the sea."

"That's right. Inuyasha has something of hers and so she cannot return."

"Hmn."

"I would like you to help her find it."

Sesshoumaru peers at me, curiosity hidden but still on his face. "Hmn. Perhaps this will be interesting."

I smile, "Perhaps."

111

The first day back I heard Kagome and Sesshoumaru have a small fight. "Servant am yours I no! Mess elsewhere make!"

"I will do as I please girl."

"No! Go you! Clean I keep must!"

"I do as I please!"

"No! Go now you! Break you did vase! Mad Inuyasha make it!"

Sesshoumaru didn't care. He kept making more messes until Inuyasha and him had a battle. Kagome had long given up trying to get him to leave by that time.

That battle was the first in an all out war between the bothers. In the next few weeks Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru got into many fights, because Inuyasha kept catching Sesshoumaru in his wing. Not only was he there but he would have things tossed carelessly about. Then add to that his little servant would eternally be beside Sesshoumaru trying to fix and put away what he had displaced. It would anger Inuyasha to no end.

One day as I was walking towards Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, they were outside so they could battle without angering me, I heard Inuyasha hiss, "Stop looking for it! You can't have her! She is mine! Forever!"

"Your miko will not like hearing you say that."

"I can have both!"

"Nor that."

Inuyasha raged incoherently after that. The battle lasted until Sesshoumaru no longer found it enjoyable and slammed Inuyasha into the stones at the foundation of my palace. A few cracked and Inuyasha was knocked out.

Scenes like that one continued until I awoke one evening to a wail.

Running down the hall I just spotted Kagome, flung over the shoulder of the wolf she had bespelled, before they disappeared into a whirlwind. Inuyasha wanted to go after them but Kikyo held him back. "No. Let him have her. I am tired of the wretch."

Inuyasha gave in. Yet I foresaw only bad things if we were to let her go like that. Apparently I was not the only one for Sesshoumaru left that night. I did not even notice until morning that he had gone.

111

One night later I was awakened by Sesshoumaru entering my rooms with the girl dangling from his arms. Well from his arm, his left arm hung limp and bloody. The girl, aside from being covered in his blood, was feverish. I directed him to place her on my futon. Together we cleaned her up.

It came to my attention then that her blood had been hidden under his, and it smelled of pure sea water. Before I could stop him Sesshoumaru leaned down and licked one of her gapping wounds. It didn't even start to heal. He licked it again and again. Still nothing, she just bled heavier. Her sweating picked up also. Her eyes opened and she spoke... nonsense in a language foreign to my ears. Years later when English men stepped onto a nearby shore I finally was able to get a translation but then all I understood was that she knew she was dying. "Blood flows like the sea, away and away from me. Soon I shall be like my skin, empty, empty, empty." Looking blindly at Sesshoumaru she said in Japanese, "Thank I you."

He placed his forehead to hers, "Thank I you." he whispered back. Then he stood determination hardening his face. He raced off before I could say a word.

Kagome horsely begged me, "Go. He also blood die."

"It's a minor wound." I stated.

Sticking a hand into her nearest wound she returned, "I blood."

I realized what she meant and rushed off.

I found Sesshoumaru stuck in blood lust and attacking Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru growled out, "Give it to me!" with every swing of his arm.

Inuyasha was frantic to defend himself. But there was little he could do against his brother when he was actually trying to kill him. "I don't know what you are talking about!" He kept yelping.

I jumped in trying to hold Sesshoumaru back. "Her pelt boy! He wants the girl's pelt!"

"Ki-Kikyo burned it!" Inuyasha cried."

Sesshoumaru slacked in defeat.

Stepping up from stringing her bow Kikyo confessed, "No, I did not." Out from her sleeve came a man sized black pelt. Suddenly Sesshoumaru lunged for Kikyo, escaping my grip. Kikyo screamed in fear but Sesshoumaru merely yanked the pelt from her fingers and ran off to Kagome.

I followed after him. Sesshoumaru rubbed the pelt against her wounds and they closed. Kagome jumped up and hugged her pelt to her body. "I die thought!"

After a few moments Sesshoumaru sagged to the futon. "Can you save my son?" I demanded.

"No. Save need he no."

"You said your blood would kill him."

Looking away she sighed. "Die want I alone."

"Then why is he..?" I trailed off.

"Sleep. Blood cause do want what him. Truth also the tell. Sleep come. Wake head with hurts. Fine he is."

I sagged down beside my son.

"Inu no Taisho." I lifted my head, she had never called me by my name before. "I sea go to."

"What?"

"I sea go to..." she looked at the sleeping Sesshoumaru. Then she snuggled up to his head and arms. "...Tomorrow." Kagome fell asleep curled around Sesshoumaru's upper body. Her shiny black pelt in her arms and against her face.

I dosed off while watching them. When wakefulness returned Kagome was gone and the sun was up. Sesshoumaru slept on. Until moments later when Inuyasha slammed through the door. Inuyasha was all healed up.

Sesshoumaru growled at Inuyasha, then at his headache, then he notice Kagome was gone and growled displeasure at that also. He interrupted the ranting Inuyasha whom I wasn't listening to with a dangerously uttered, "Where's Kagome?" He grabbed Inuyasha's front hauling him so they were nose to nose.

Inuyasha shivered at his tone. "I saw her running out the door at first light."

Sesshoumaru threw him away and rushed out the window. I went after him, too curious to stay behind.

Kagome was surprisingly swift now that her pelt had been returned. We didn't catch up with her until well into the night. She was at the seashore by that time. Normally a three day trip for humans. She got there in one day. Sesshoumaru bolted before her. She couldn't change her course quickly enough. She rammed straight into him. Kagome cried out, "Sea! Sea! Want I home!"

Sesshoumaru held unto her while she struggled.

"Please! Want I home!"

"Kagome."

"Maya! I Maya!" she yelled.

"Maya."

Finally she looked up. "Sesshoumaru?"

He nodded.

"Spell I no you." she said confused. Maya touched his face in bewilderment.

"No. There is not a spell on me." he was just as bewildered.

"Spell look like you. Spell I no you. Sesshoumaru spell real?"

He didn't know the answer to that. So he just leaned down and kissed her, gently. I was a little surprised he could do anything gently.

Maya looked at him wide eyed.

"You may go home now." Sesshoumaru released her.

"Go if I..." She looked at the sea beyond him. "Years seven come back no. Sesshoumaru spell real."

"It is alright. I can wait."

Rejoicingly she leapt up and kissed him. "Sesshoumaru spell real!" she squealed as she ran down the beach. She paused momentarily to remove her kimono and replace her seal skin over her black clothes.

There under a waning crescent moon Sesshoumaru and I watched the only selkie we had ever met dive smoothly into the waves. She flipped her tail at us. Her inky black body soon disappeared into the dark waves after that last farewell.

"Seven years." Sesshoumaru whispered. He ran a hand through his silvery-white hair.

"Yes. That is what she said." My matching hair shifting with the move.

Sesshoumaru looked out into the sea. "I will be ready when she returns." A few days later he returned home with a human child, a little girl about five years old. She had black hair, pale skin, a toothy smile and sang all manner of songs. Most of all she had the same clean and bright aura as Kagome or Maya the seal-maid had.

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Word Count: 3188

Maya has three different origins according to the site I used, they are as follows, Hinduism: illusion- English: The eldest Pleiads- Hebrew: Water. When Inu no Taisho asks if she is an illusion he's referring to what it means in Hinduism

I hope you all enjoyed it. Please let me know wht you think of it! Thank you for the reading. Double thanks if you review!


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